Final Report on RREF 2001 - Department of Health

Part B: Development of Options for a Revised RREF
VARIABLE 5: ACCESSIBILITY AND REMOTENESS INDEX FOR AUSTRALIA -
ARIA
Data Source: Commonwealth Dept. of Health and Aged Care and
Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems
Issues:
• Individual LGA scores on ARIA replace the 3 tier rural density weighting in the 1992
RREF.
• The 15 level ARIA provides a very discerning measure of accessibility and rurality
across the whole state. The way the Index is constructed, using a grid of local areas
smaller than LGAs, captures travel distance to centres of difference sizes and so gives a
good indicator of access to services that locate only in centres above certain sizes, such
as Aged Care Assessment Services. It is a much more effective “real-world” measure
of rurality than the arbitrary measure of density used in the 1992 RREF.
• ARIA does not simply average the density of population across LGAs, but measures
travel distance to centres of different sizes. A non-metropolitan LGA in which most of
the population was located in a large provincial centre would rank as more accessible
than an LGA with the same population but dispersed more evenly across the whole area.
• Accessibility and remoteness is included as a variable associated with need for higher
levels of service among the rural population, due to health status and limited access to
alternative services, such as private allied health and social support services.
• As performance targets are based on the level of funding made available through the
RREF, any additional funding through the RREF lead to a higher performance target
and so did not take account of higher costs associated with travel and other factors.
• Low ARIA scores indicate low remoteness/high accessibility, and high scores show
high remoteness/low accessibility.
! 24 LGAs comprising the inner and middle distance suburbs of Melbourne have
ARIA scores of 1 and so are scored 0 and receive no weighting.
! urban fringe LGAs are well differentiated and have higher ARIA scores and so
receive some weighting.
! rural LGAs in which large provincial centres are located have higher accessibility to
these centres and are less remote than more distant surrounding LGAs and so
receive lower weightings.
! the most distant and least accessible parts of the state receive the highest weighting.
<strong>Final</strong> <strong>Report</strong> July 2001 61